What Hidden Hinge solution is the best?
But not all of them are right for your hidden door or secret room.
Whether you are looking to add a secret room in your house or a hidden doorway everyone will know its a door if you dont hide your hinges with a set of hidden hinges. While Hide a Hinge produces one kind of hidden hinge there are lots of options out there for all different kinds of hidden doors and secret passeges.
Hidden cabinet hinges
The most versatile hidden hinges I have seen are made for cabinets and cupboards. Hidden cabinet hinges do a great job when it comes to remaining hidden while opening and closing cupboard or cabinet doors but they can't hold a heavy load. Because these hidden hinges can't hold a heavy load they aren't well suited for swinging heavier objects such as solid wood doors, shelving, or other furniture or doorway covering. There has been some discussion on forums of just adding many of these hinges with the idea that if you have enough they will be able to hold much more weight but this generally doesn't work because while they may be able to hold more weight collectively with a dozen cabinet hinges the dynamic load will still be an issue and when opened all the way it will likely fail and leave a LOT of tiny screw holes in whatever you mounted it too.
Generally, cabinet hinges also require specialty tools to mount them. If you already have a router or a jig this may not be a problem and pretty much any hidden hinge project will require some degree of custom woodworking. In addition to requiring specialty tools to mount hidden cabinet hinges can also cause issues if you are trying to mount to an existing door frame since the hardware is usually small and can't anchor deep into the door frame or the studs behind the door frame.
Concealed cabinet hinges are generally easily found in neighborhood hardware stores such as Lowes or Home Depot and can also be found online on websites like Hardwarehut.com, Hardwaresource.com, Build.com, and RealCraft.com
In the door and in the frame hidden, Invisible, or concealed hinges
Often time these hinges are called “invisible hinges” or “concealed hinges”. These hinges are generally going to be mounted inside a groove or pocket both inside the door as well as in the door frame. These hinges can make for some super cool and aesthetically pleasing paneled or acoustically decorated doors in walls that blend in quite well with their surroundings and can in essence disappear in plain sight. These hinges are manufactured by a number of different companies including Sugatsune, SOSS, Anselmi, and Tectus Hinges. While these hinges are great at what they do and all seem to be engineered well, none of them can do what Hide a Hinge™ does.
These types of hinges are used in different scenarios than Hide a Hinge™. While these hinges are concealed in pockets both in the door, themselves, and the frame, Hide a Hinge™ is concealed behind an object that's generally not a door as its main function. Hide a Hinge™ is concealed because it mounts behind whatever is concealing the doorway and allows you to keep whatever object up against the wall/entryway and swing away to reveal the existing door behind where as all the hinges in this category generally swing a door or a door made to look like the wall.
The hinges in the category could work in some scenarios with some engineering; however, they aren't made to handle heavy loads such as armoires, bookshelves, liquor cabinets, etc., like the Hide a Hinge™ is.
These types of concealed hinges also require specialty tools or jigs in order to install and are not made to be easily retrofitted into existing doorways or conceal existing doorways. The tolerances on these hinges need to be extremely precise for a seamless install and that would be difficult for most average DIYers out there.
The hidden swing or pivot hinge
You can find these types of hidden entryway hinges all over the internet from places like Murphydoor.com or even on Ebay.com or Amazon.com. These hinges mount a few inches in from the edge of a swinging doorway, bookcase, or something similar. These hinges aren't necessarily hidden in and of themselves but can be made hidden by some fancy trim work. These are a cheap option as the hinges themselves are typically under $50 but the custom woodworking can get very costly for someone who isn't quite good at carpentry and woodworking usually reaching the $3000-$5000 range.
Pivot hinges while being able to swing out a basic small bookcase or cabinetry have some potential big drawbacks. Pivot hinges are not made and can not be easily retrofitted to existing doorways meaning you will likely need to either include them in your initial floorplans when the house is being built or be prepared to rip out door frames, trim, drywall, and other aspects of an existing doorway or entrance. Pivot hinges generally will be used with shelving that looks like it is built into the wall or recessed into the wall and for many that would be a major clue that there is something fishy with said bookshelf or cabinet. Due to the way these hinges work there is always a small amount of the bookcase, mirror, or cabinet that will swing into the room so if you intended to install a door behind it you might have to set it back away so the swinging shelf will not interfere.
What hidden hinge solution is best?
Well, what's best for your scenario may be different than what's best for someone else's hidden hinge project. If you are only trying to conceal a lightweight piece of wood or mirror you may be able to get away with using a basic hidden cabinet hinge. If you have a paneled or acoustic wall design you may opt for the SOSS concealed hinges or those made by Tectus. If you want a hinge that will hold a lightweight in-wall shelf setup then a pivot hinge is just what you need. These hinges are great when used for their specific purpose but if you are looking for an extreme-duty hinge that can be easily retrofitted to an existing doorway and swing out a full solid piece of real furniture or other heavy object a Hide a Hinge™ is the clear choice. Hide a Hinge™ has several other benefits as well such as easy installation (project dependent of course), and the ability to attach many different things to them is also unique. Lastly, Hide a Hinge™ is built to be able to swing extremely heavy loads so you will never have to worry about having too many books on the bookshelf or bottles in your hidden door liqueur cabinet.